Pinterest has added bookmarks access to its immersive ‘New Tab Page’ Chrome extension, in an update rolling out on the Web Store today.
When opening a new tab with the updated add-on installed users will find a new ‘grid’ icon in the upper right-hand corner that will toggle (after granting permission) a custom in-tab bookmarks bar. This displays the same pinned items as on the regular Chrome Bookmarks Bar, and syncs changes made back to it.
The previous release of the Pinterest New Tab add-on lacked any form of bookmarks or Chrome Apps page access entirely, an oversight quickly flagged up as inconvenient on social media:
@Pinterest Looking nice, but it removes bookmarks from the new tab. I don't want to "ctrl+shift+b" for bokmarks every time I open new tab.
— Saša Antonijević (@salemax) September 5, 2014
While the feature will seem redundant to those with the ‘Always Show the Bookmarks Bar‘ setting enabled in Chrome, it does serve those used to seeing their bookmarks displayed when opening a fresh tab.
The addition of bookmarks aside, this latest update brings little else of note. The photography category choices remain the same, as do the on-tab features, which includes Google Calendar integration and location data.
One change the add-on sorely needs is better resource usage. It continues to hog system memory like nothing else installed, even when it is not open or in active view.
Glancing at the Chrome Task manager, one Pinterest tab alone left running in the background balloons to over 550MB of RAM — which is crazy.
Getting The Extension
Stunning visuals and some nifty extras, like a bundled ‘pin it’ button, add up to make the add-on attractive to more than just the Pinterest faithful. If it can get its resource usage under control — something I expect it will do shortly — it’ll make a bigger impact in the burgeoning alternative New Tab Page scene.
If you want it as is, you can grab it for free from the Chrome Web Store.